Emergency Room Monitoring Shows Traumatic-Injury Hazards
(Taken
from Impact Volume XVI, No. 1 May 1998)
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Katherine Hunting
CPWR – Center for Construction Research and Training
Plumbers: The Eyes Have It
Eye injuries are more common for plumbers (and pipefitters and steamfitters)
than for any other trade - 19% of plumbers' emergency-room cases. Plumbers
had 5% of the emergency injury cases in the GWU survey, but 10% of the eye
injuries (29 cases).
Most of the plumbers' eye injuries were from a foreign object entering the
eye, which can lead to permanent damage. Injuries occurred while working
overhead, soldering or welding, grinding metal, painting, or working with
pressurized pipes.
These are some ways to reduce eye injuries:
- Wear eye protection
- Use barriers
or different materials to reduce dust, metal fragments, and other particles
- Use water to
reduce dust on the job.
Sheetmetal
Workers Get Cuts
Sheetmetal workers suffer a lot of cuts on the job, mainly to the hands
and fingers, but also to the arm and head. Serious cuts were 46% of the
injuries treated for this trade in the GWU survey. (Ninety-three sheetmetal
workers were treated for 100 injuries; 7 workers had 2 diagnoses.)
Sprains and strains were the second-most-common injury for sheetmetal
workers - 21 injuries. Most often, the pain was in the low back or shoulder,
but also the foot, hand, and upper back.
The third-most-common injuries were to the eyes. (Sheetmetal workers,
like plumbers, do a lot of their work while reaching overhead.)
The leading cause of the injuries was contact with a sharp object, usually
sheet metal. The other most common causes were falls (16%), overexertion
(16%), or being struck by a falling object (9%).
Emergency-Room
Monitoring Shows Traumatic-Injury Hazards
Researchers
at George Washington University (GWU) have been monitoring construction-worker
treatment at the Emergency Department of the GWU Medical Center in Washington,
D.C., since November 1990, in cooperation with CPWR – Center for Construction Research and Training. After collecting information on 3,003 construction workers treated
for work-related injuries in the first 7 years of the study, the researchers
are summarizing their findings.
Workers don't usually go to emergency rooms for work-related sprains and
strains or work-related illnesses, such as lung disease. Also, the numbers
are small and the mix of work being done around the big-city hospital
may not reflect all construction or all types of injuries. But the GWU
research does show where efforts can be focused effectively to improve
safety on the job. More than 700 construction workers are injured each
workday in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Below are some facts from reports, by trade, being prepared by the researchers,
Katherine Hunting and Judith Anderson of the GWU Department of Environmental
and Occupational Health and Laura Welch of the Washington Hospital Center.
This paper appears in the eLCOSH website with the permission of the author
and/or copyright holder and may not be reproduced without their consent.
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